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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002
BY DEFAULT, the title of official State demon has rested for nearly
a century with the Leeds Devil, a friendly native of Atlantic County
who has traveled extensively throughout southern New Jersey. Although
the exact date of his birth is not known, there is no doubt as to his
maternal parentage. A Mrs. Leeds of Estelville, a small community near
the Great Egg Harbor River, found that she was an expectant mother.
The expectations of Mrs. Leeds were neither great nor enthusiastic, and
in a petulant moment she cried out that she hoped the stork would bring
a devil.
In due time the long-billed bird made a perfect three-point landing in
either the Leeds cabbage patch or rose garden, depending on which school
of obstetrical thought the reader accepts. The sequence of events from
this point is somewhat confused. One version is that Mrs. Leeds told the
stork to take the baby back where it came from, and a few minutes later
the accommodating bird returned with a red-faced little devil tied up in a
napkin. The other story is that the human baby promptly assumed the
form of a demon and flew out of the window. At any rate, Mrs. Leeds
was surprised and perhaps regretted her hasty wish.
The young devil is believed to have spent his adolescence in the swampland, beyond the reach of truant officers and child guidance clinics. Soon
after attaining his majority he started going out nights and made himself
widely known to the population of southern New Jersey.
Cloven-hoofed, long-tailed, and white; with the head of a collie dog,
the face of a horse, the body of a kangaroo, the wings of a bat, and the
disposition of a lamb-that is the Leeds Devil. He has never harmed a
soul, nor violated even a local ordinance. There is every reason to believe
that his nocturnal ramblings have been actuated by a sympathetic curiosity
about the affairs of man. One report is that he is writing a thesis, A
Plutonian Critique o f Some Awful Aspects of the Terrestrial Life, in
preparation for a doctor's degree from the University of Hell. The more
scientifically minded people of the State therefore consider it unfortunate
that the devil's field work has been hampered by door-slammings and curtain-drawings.
Only old judge French showed any kindness to the demon
scholar. Every morning for years, it is said, the judge and the devil engaged in lively discussions of Republican politics, while breakfasting
together on South Jersey ham and eggs.
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